Since I cut my hair down to the natural curls, I have been surprised by how much new growth I got since my last relaxer in May ’09. When my hair is compacted down, it is a TWA (Teenie Weenie Afro), but when I stretch some of the curls, they are about 3-3/4 inches long. The longest part in the back is already almost to my shoulder and the front area just touches my eyebrows.

I have been using MT/OCT/MSM and just added Bee Mine to the rotation of growth aids I am using. I would like to see full shoulder length by December of this year. What has been working for me so far is the regimen I am going to follow for the time being.

Co-wash 3-4 times a week

Use shikakai bar once a month

Deep condition after each co-wash/shikakai wash (mixture of protein and moisture)

Trim every 2 months

Scritch my scalp at least once a day

Apply growth aid after scritching (i.e. MT/OCT/MSM one night, Bee Mine the next night and so forth)

Drink hot green tea with stinging nettle powder and honey at night in the winter and spring, iced in the summer

5Grams Biotin each night before bed

be-Beautiful vitamin powder with MSM during the day

Baggy as needed

It may seem like a lot, but I have become accustomed to this regimen, and it appears to be working for me, so I’ll keep on keeping on =) I’ll be checking in about every six weeks to see what’s up.

A few days later than promised, I have another update on the growth I got from using Megatek and Ovation Cell Therapy (OCT). I just bought and added the OCT about a month ago. I have been combing it with the MT and applying it every night. I also added oiling my scalp with coconut oil before I go to bed to protect my ends. So without further ado, here are the latest growth pics from August to November. I’m almost APL now =)

I’m a member of longhaircareforum, which is a great forum for helping black women to achieve healthy hair. One of the things I like about this site, besides all the good info, is all the challenges that are available to join. Thanks to the wonderful women there, I’ve joined the “Put Down the Ruler” challenge, “Get Your Hands Out of Your Hair” challenge and the “MT/OCT” (stands for MegaTek/Ovation Cell Therapy) challenge.

I joined the ruler challenge because I was/am so obsessed with finding out how much my hair grew everyday. I joined the hands out of hair challenge because I’m always playing with my hair–feeling new growth, wetting my hair to see how long I can get it to look, and that damned flat iron (don’t even get me started about that: see my post snip). I joined the MT/OCT challenge just to see if I can increase my hair growth more than it usually grows. Between the three of these challenges that I’ve joined (so far), by my birthday–or by early next year–I’m hoping my hair will be the healthiest it’s been in a while. And if length comes with it all the better =)

One of the amazing things about curly hair is something called “shrinkage”. In my own words, shrinkage is the difference in length of hair at different times. When my hair is wet, it looks much longer than when it has air dried. At times this can be frustrating because I don’t like to flat iron my hair all that often, and I’m not really one to rollerset, so most of the time when my hair is dry it looks like it falls to my shoulders. Case in point:

Even though shrinkage can be a bit of a pain, I am still overall glad to have such versatile hair, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything =)

Well, I’ve been using MT for about 3 weeks now. I apply it to my scalp twice a day (morning and night) and I have noticed new growth coming in, but it’s a little too early right now to see a significant difference. The difference I DID notice is that my hair is stronger, getting thicker, and feels softer. I also notice that my new growth is softer and easier to comb through in addition to my hair looking shinier. I’m contstantly surprised at how much of a difference there is in lenght from when my hair is dry and when it’s wet. I’ll continue to use MT along with my Ayurveda. Hopefully by the end of this month I will finally hit APL.

ETA October 31, 2008: It’s been about two months now and megatek has really helped to thicken my hair, and there is growth, too, but since I’m not using heat for a while (because I tend to abuse it and have to chop off hair as a result), I don’t know exactly how much. As an experiment, I relaxed my hair about 3 weeks ago, to see what I could see. Two weeks post I felt new growth coming up. I just bought some Ovation Cell Therapy (OCT) to see if the growth can be increased. I have a few strands touching APL right now, but it’s not full APL yet. I’m hoping by my birthday at the end of November I will be there. I’ll take comparison pics then =)I want to be really suprised, and I hope that I am…fingers crossed!

Before:

3 Weeks of MT:

3 month update coming in November

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